The Montserrat Monastery was the setting, Saturday 11 January, of the founding meeting of the new association, which is integrated by 60 towns and cities, including Cervera, of the five communities through which the Ignatian Way passes (Catalonia, Aragon, Navarra, La Rioja and the Basque Country).
At the foundation act of the Association of Municipalities of the Camí Ignasià, an unprecedented entity in the State as a whole, a total of participated 60 representatives of local administrations, including the 1st deputy mayor of La Paeria de Cervera, Ramon Augé.
The approach of the new supra-municipal entity is to work in coordination from the local world to make visible the tourist attractions of the territories that are part of the Camí Ignasià, an itinerary that unites Loyola, a Subordinate, and Manresa, and that beyond spirituality and the figure of Saint Ignatius it offers great potential.
It aims for the route to become a tourist engine and opportunities based on the historical attractions, patrimonial, landscape, gastronomic and commercial that accompany the route.
Assisting municipalities
The Association of Municipalities of the Camí Ignasià aims to group under one umbrella those near 90 towns and cities that are part of the route. so far, has the adhesion of 60 of municipalities. The organization will continue working in the coming months to increase the number of councils.
The founding meeting of Montserrat was attended by the municipalities of Bellpuig, Castellnou de Seana, Cervera, Palau d’Anglesola, prexana, soft, Tarrega, Verdú, Villa-sana, Argençola, Castellbell and Vilar, Castellgalí, Castellólí, Even, Manresa Marganell, Monistrol de Montserrat, Montmaneu, Ódena and Veciana (Catalonia), Alcalá de Ebro, Ebro cabins, Sources of Ebro, Gaul, Lucien, mallen, Heifers, Sobradiel, Towers of Berrellén and Zaragoza (Aragon), Courts of Navarra, Genevilla, Thepopulation, Lodosa i Ribaforada (Navarra), Calahorra, Agoncillo, Alcanadre, Aldeanueva de Ebro, Alfaro, Arrúbal i Fuenmayor (Rioja) i Aspar's, Campezo, The Villar, Kripan, Laguardia, Lapuebla de Labarca, knightly, Azkoitia, The underdog, Legazpi, Urretxu i Zumárraga (Basque Country).
The representatives of all these councils have met in Montserrat, where they shared a lunch, they signed the constitution of the new association and also had the opportunity to travel to Manresa and visit the Cova de Sant Ignasi and the Baroque Museum.
The board is initially chaired by the mayor of Manresa, Marc Aloy Guard, and is formed by the deputy president Joan Vila Marta (Manresa), the vice president Nagore Alkorta Elorza (The underdog), the secretary Rubén Sancho Burgos (Arrubal) and the treasurer Sara Fernández Escuer (Zaragoza). There are also a total of seven vowels: Diana Paola Osorio Valencia (Ribaforadada); Ana Azkoitia Urteaga (Azkoitia); Encarna Fuertes Reboiro (Agoncillo); Ana María Arellano Badía (Lucien): Francesc Balcells Teixidó (The Palace of Anglesola); Mikel Serrano Aperribay (Zumarraga) i Jon Luqui News (Urretxu).
The founding meeting held in Montserrat is also part of the celebrations of the Thousand·lenary of the mountain which is one of the great attractions of the Camí Ignasià and which receives the visit of more than 2 millions of tourists every year.
650 kilometers from Camí Ignasià
The Camí Ignasià recreates the itinerary that the knight Ignatius of Loyola traveled that year 1522, Loiola's (The underdog, Basque Country), his native town, to Manresa, city where he stayed for eleven months before traveling to the Holy Land.
Manresa became from then on the key location in the life and work of who later became Saint. It is in this city that Sant Ignasi, founder of the order of the Companyia de Jesús (Jesuits), he had the mystical and spiritual experiences that inspired him in the writing of his main work: the Spiritual Exercises.
The route, divided into twenty stages, takes place during 650 kilometers through cities and towns in the Basque Country, Rioja, Navarra, Aragon and Catalonia.
